Iruka Falls In Love
by Istale
Summary: Iruka falls in love--kind of obvious from the title, you know?--with a girl who's a lot younger than him.It's just a sweet love story . . . Rated T to be safe because something happens in a later chapter . . .
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own Naruto.**

**This is around the time when Naruto is eight years old, because Sari is two years older than him. (Iruka is 19)  
**

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Iruka Umino walked down the street with a little bouquet of daisies in his hand. He spotted the little tavern that he was searching for, with an old woman out front, sweeping off the porch.

"Mrs. Tanaka?" She looked up and smiled at Iruka.

"No one calls me that; just call me Maya." She held an old wrinkled hand to her chin. "You're Iruka Uminno, right? You were Sari's teacher."

"Yeah, I uh, brought flowers." He held out the daisy bouquet. "I wanted to talk to Sari."

"Good luck, she's been crying in her room all day; she won't even eat."

"Wow, she must really have wanted to be a kunoichi." He looked up at the upper part of the tavern where Sari and her aunt lived.

"No, she never really liked the idea."

"What?! Then why'd she go to the Academy?"

"I'm not sure. She always said that she only had one reason to stay at the Academy (and to get up so early) but she never told me what it was."

"Hmm." Iruka thought what it might be for a moment, but gave up—Sari had never really showed promise at the Academy—she liked to goof off and had received a detention almost every day of the school year. "Can I go talk to her?"

"You can try." Maya continued sweeping the porch. "It's straight up the stairs, second door."

"Thank you." He left her and climbed the outer stairs to the second level.

Even though Sari was a troublemaker and rarely had done her homework, he had always liked her. He would miss her now that she wasn't going to be at the Academy anymore.

He knocked on the second door.

"Go away!" Sari yelled from her perch in the window. She wiped her eyes and tried to ignore the person at the door, but then a voice said: "Then what would I do with these poor flowers?"

Iruka had opened the door and held the little bouquet out to her.

"Iruka-sensei!" She jumped from the window-bed and ran to her teacher, tears springing back to her eyes, and hugged him tightly around the waist.

She lets go and he hands her the bouquet. "The doctors told me about your sickness, I'm sorry."

"It's okay, I didn't want to be a kunoichi anyway." She said, putting the flowers in a vase on her dresser. "There's too much work."

He laughs and ruffles her light brown hair. "You are the laziest person I know." He kisses her on the forehead and then turns to leave.

"I-Iruka-sensei, w-will you come visit me again?" She was looking at the floor, refusing to meet his eyes.

He leaned down so that he was on the same level as her. "Let's make a deal—I will come and visit as often as I can if you promise not to be sad anymore."

"I promise!" She raised her little pinky and he entwined his own.

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**The next day . . . (lol, that's the lamest transition ever! XD )**

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Iruka stepped into the tavern and saw Maya serving some customers. She spotted him and hustled over.

"Whatever you said to her, it really helped—she's been bouncing around all day, just full of energy!"

"Iruka-sensei!" Sari popped out of the back room and joined them. "Guess what—Auntie's going to let me work here in the shop!"

"Really? Then I'll have to come back and order a drink sometime"

"Really?" She beamed at him and then ran back into the back room to retrieve customer's drinks.

"Is it really a good idea to let her serve drinks in a tavern? She's only ten."

"It gives her something to do instead of sleeping all day."

Iruka didn't like the idea but he dealt with it anyway, sometimes he even ordered a drink when he came to visit.

* * *

**I guess it's a little weird that Iruka's nine years older than Sari, but I just really wanted him to be with a younger girl.**

**(It's not _that _weird though, my old youth pastor was married to a guy nine years older than her . . .)  
**


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own Naruto.**

**Iruka gives Sari a kiss on the forehead every day--how sweet 3  
**

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Iruka stepped inside the tavern and saw Maya behind the counter, a worried look on her face. Sari was nowhere in sight.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"Sari's in a bad mood. She stormed out earlier, throwing drinks all over the women that she had been talking to. She won't tell me a thing!" She threw her hands into the air. "I don't know what I'm going to do with the girl!"

"Maybe I can get her to tell me what's wrong."

"By all means, try!" She grabbed a tray full off drinks and angrily stomped off to give them to customers.

Iruka headed up the stairs and spotted Sari sitting on the railing, looking at the busy village street below. "Hey, Sari."

"Hello Iruka-sensei."She said glumly, not looking at him.

"What's wrong?" He asked, leaning on the railing next to her.

"Nothing."

"Your aunt says you dumped drinks on some of the customers." He tried ,unsuccessfully, not to smile.

"They deserved it—they kept calling me cute and adorable! I hate it! _Boys _don't have to put up with it!" She looked at Iruka, as if daring him to call her cute too.

"Boys are usually annoying and gross."

"I can be annoying and gross."

He laughs and ruffles her hair. "No you can't; you're _naturally_ cute and adorable."

"No I'm not!" She blushes and shoves his hand away. Then she spots his kunai. She grabs for it and slices off one of her long braids before he can stop her.

He takes the kunai away before she can cut off the other. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to cut off all my hair so I look like a boy, then no one will call me cute!"

He sighs. "You shouldn't have cut off your hair, what's your aunt going to say?"

Maya calls Sari from downstairs and Iruka looks a bit worried. "Um, I'd better be going." He slips down the stairs and leaves before Maya can catch him and yell at him for letting Sari cut her hair.

"You don't really have to go—you just don't want to get in trouble!" Sari yelled after him. She sighed. "He didn't give me a kiss today."

She heads down the stairs and meets her aunt halfway, who gasps when she sees her niece's hair. "Sari, what have you done to your beautiful hair?!"

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**The next day . . . (I know, another lame transition XD )**

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Iruka cautiously stepped into the tavern, hoping that Maya wasn't going to kill him.

"Iruka-sensei!" Sari—now with short hair and dressed in boy's clothes—waved at him, balancing a tray full of drinks. He waved back and smiled.

"She loves being mistaken for a boy." Maya said. She had snuck up behind him from the porch. Iruka jumped. "She's called cute and adorable even more than before, but she doesn't seem to mind anymore—it actually seems like she likes it."

Iruka—now sure that Maya wasn't going to eat him with her broom—turned back to watch Sari happily serve the customers and let them fawn over her. "Well, she always liked to be different."

Maya sighed. "What a strange little girl I have on my hands—or should I say little boy?"

Iruka looked at the beaming Sari. "She may be able to trick them now, but in a few years, she won't fool anyone."

Deciding that Sari was too busy, he turned to leave. He made it to the door of the porch before Sari called out to him.

"Iruka-sensei, wait!" She ran out of the tavern and grabbed his shirt, pulling him down. She planted a kiss on his forehead, making him blush.

"You forgot to give me a kiss yesterday and I thought you forgot today too, so _I _gave _you _one instead."

He laughs. "Sorry, it must have slipped my mind!" He placed a hand on her head. "But I won't forget tomorrow. See you!" He left with Sari beaming at him.

Maya stood in the doorway, smiling--she had just realized what Sari's one reason was.

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**I think Sari is sooo adorable!! 3**


	3. Chapter 3

**I don't own Naruto.**

**Iruka visits for years!! (YAY!) **

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Over the years, Iruka didn't visit as often; he spent a lot of time with Naruto. Sometimes he would tell Sari about his new students—he even had found someone even more lazy than Sari—Shikamaru Nara.

Once, he had taken her out for a walk and showed her a huge field of flowers. It was where all the flower shops in Konoha got their flowers from. They had laid down, almost hidden by the flowers, and watched the clouds float by.

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It was the day before Sari's fifteenth birthday and she was serving drinks to the customers. There was a rowdy bunch in today and Sari was glad that she was dressed as a boy. She was serving a table full of smoking men in their forties when one particularly loud table started calling for her.

"Hey boy! Come get us more beer!"

"Yeah, more!" They were all really big and muscular, visitors from some other village here for a sports competition.

Sari fills four tankards and brings them to the men. "Here." She begins to clear away the numerous glasses that had already been emptied.

"You know you don't really sound like a boy." One of them said.

"Yeah, you look kind of girly too." Another pointed out, squinting at her.

Sari tried to ignore them but one pulled her into his lap and started feeling her chest. "He _is _a girl!" He exclaimed. "Look!" He began to tug her shirt up but a kunai flew toward his head. It landed right next to his left ear, stuck deep within the wooden bench.

"Don't touch her!" Iruka stood in the doorway, his hand ready to reach for another kunai if he had to.

The big guy tossed Sari to the floor and stood up—he was easily two feet taller than Iruka.

"You gonna stop me, _punk_?" He asked, cracking his knuckles.

Iruka easily beat him in a few moves. His drunken buddies all scrambled from the tavern, trying not to run into tables as they went. The other customers also started to slip off, not wanting to be the next to fight Iruka.

"Are you okay?" He helped Sari to her feet.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She turns away. _I can't believe I was weak in front of Iruka-sensei!_

She feels his arms wrap around her waist, strong and comforting. "Don't worry." He whispered into her neck. "I'll always be here to protect you."

She turned to face him, wishing that he would kiss her. As he leaned down, Sari thought that her heart would explode. But then he kissed her forehead and she felt worse than before.

_He only thinks I'm a little kid that needs to be protected._

"Oh yeah, the reason I came by today was because I wanted to tell you I can't come to your birthday tomorrow."

_Now he doesn't even want to see you. _Sari felt her heart ripping apart.

"So I brought your present today!" He held up a little box wrapped in tissue paper. He pressed it into her hands. "Open it."

Her doubts had been washed away by the sight of Iruka's smiling face. She picked at the tape, not wanting to tear the paper. She opened the little black box and looked at the beautiful silver necklace within. It had the most delicate silver chain and the charm was a little silver leaf-village symbol with a diamond in the center.

"It's beautiful!"

He lifts the necklace from the box and puts it around her neck. "Happy birthday." He says it quietly in Sari's ear, making her blush.

He kisses her on the forehead and is about to leave when Maya barges into the tavern.

"Iruka Umino!" She marched right up to him and put her finger in his face. "You scared away all my customers!"

Sari and Iruka looked around and saw that, indeed, he had scared them all away.

"Uh, sorry about that!"

"You're going to be sorry!" Maya pointed toward the kunai still stuck in the bench. "First, you can fix that hole that you made! Then, you can start cleaning up!"

"B-but Maya!"

"No excuses!" She beat him with her broom.

Sorry laughed as she watched Iruka get bossed around by Maya who was at least a foot shorter than him—until Maya made her start washing all the dishes!

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**I love that Maya is so intimidating! ^o^  
**

**FYI: Iruka's mission is escorting some dandy (I love my word use! ^^ ) to the Land of Earth.**

**Only two chapters left *sniff* . . .  
**


	4. Chapter 4

**I don't own Naruto. (It'd freakin' sweet if I did though!! ^o^** )

**Sorry, I guess I forgot to mention in the last chapter that the reason Iruka can't go to Sari's birthday is because of his three-day mission escorting the Land of Earth ambassador. ^^"**

**If you want to know about the feild of flowers place,I got it from episode 159.  
**

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The tavern had been closed for two days now—Maya decided to close because of Sari—the past three days she hadn't slept a wink. Ever since Iruka had gone on his mission, she had been too tired to stand on her feet.

Maya had sent her to bed Friday evening, hoping she would finally get some sleep and they could open the tavern tomorrow. Sari had stayed up late into the night, clutching her necklace and praying that Iruka would be safe. She had no idea when she had finally drifted off to sleep, she was only aware of someone knocking on the door.

She groaned something that could almost be interpreted as "go away" and tugged the blankets over head.

"That wasn't exactly the 'welcome home' I was expecting." Iruka stuck his head into the room.

"Iruka-sensei!" Sari threw the blankets off and jumped out of the window-bed. She ran toward him and he caught her in his arms.

"That's more like it." He smiled and tousled her hair, like he always did. "Do you want to go on a picnic?"

"A picnic? Isn't it too early for a picnic?"

Iruka laughed. "It's three in the afternoon, lazy."

"Really?" Sari yawned. "It feels more like eight."

They said good-bye to Maya and headed out to the field of flowers that they often took walks to. They set out their picnic and were almost finished when they heard someone calling.

"Iruka-sensei! Iruka-sensei!" Naruto ran through the flowers toward them, Hinata and Kiba walking lazily behind him. "What are you doing here? Who's your girlfriend?" Naruto asked, noticing Sari. "Isn't she a little young for you?"

Both Sari and Iruka's faces turn red. "Ah, Naruto—it's not like that!" Iruka tried to explain. "This is my friend, Sari Tanaka—I used to teach her."

"Yeah, whatever." He turned to Kiba and Hinata. "Let's go finish this mission."

Iruka sighs and shakes his head as they leave "That Naruto." He looked up at the setting sun. "We should probably be heading back now—your aunt will be worried."

"I don't want to go back yet!" Sari said, trying to stifle a yawn.

"You're half-asleep!" He said. "I don't see how—you stayed in bed 'til three."

"I was up all night!" She said. "And I didn't sleep at all the night before."

"Why not?"

"I was worried about you!" She hugged him, trying to hold in her tears. "The village has been really busy lately—we're in danger from the other villages. What if your mission was really dangerous?" She couldn't hold back her tears when she said the thing that had been on her mind the past three days: "What if you had died, and I never knew?!"

Iruka wrapped his arms around her. "There's no way that I'm going to die and leave you."

"You'd better not." She said, wiping away tears.

Iruka leaned forward, sure that this was the right moment to finally do what he had wanted to for years: kiss Sari Tanaka.

But he couldn't do it. His lips landed on her cheek at the last moment, as if his body was telling him that she was too young for him.

Sari blushed and looked at him, but he wouldn't meet her eyes. He stood up. "Come on, you need to get to bed."

He walks her home and kisses her on the forehead before letting her stumble sleepily up the stairs to her room.

She sank into her bed and was almost asleep when she suddenly shot up, her face bright red. "Omigosh! I just realized—Iruka-sensei held my hand all the way home!"

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**LOL, Don't you just love it when you realize things waaay too late?! **

**I was originally going to have Iruka stay the night with Sari at some point, but when I wrote it out, it didn't happen. ^^"**

**I looove reviews! (If you can't tell, I'm an extremely hyper/happy mood at the moment ^o^ )  
**


	5. Chapter 5

**I don't own Narutooooo ^o^ (I'm really slap-happy at the moment!! :P )**

**This is almost a year later . . . (Iruka still hasn't properly kissed Sari -_-** *sigh* **)**

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"Ah, no fair! I lost every game!" Naruto was looking at his score for the five games of bowling they had played. For Sari's 16th birthday, she, Iruka, and all the remaining Leaf-Village Genin had gone bowling. (It was originally supposed to be just Sari and Iruka, but they met the others there and joined them.)

"I guess bowling's just not your game." Sakura said. _Inner Sakura: Ha! I totally kicked your butt, Naruto!_

"Nah, I must've had a defective ball, or something."

"You used every ball they had, Naruto, I think _you're _the defective one." Kiba said.

"Hey, you didn't do that good either!"

"Better than you!" (His score was only ten points higher)

"Whatever, I'll see you guys tomorrow." They separated into groups at a crossing and walked home.

"Good night, Naruto, I am looking forward to beating you again." Lee called.

"Well, that was fun." Iruka said as he and Sari walked together—holding hands.

"Yeah, we should do it again next year."

Iruka looked at Sari who was smiling at nothing—she just seemed to be happy with everything. They stopped in front of the tavern but Iruka didn't let go of her hand.

"What is it?" Sari asked.

"I-I have one more present for you." Iruka was blushing, but he was determined do it. "Close your eyes." It had taken him this long to finally summon the courage to kiss her.

Sari felt Iruka's hand on her cheek and then their lips met. She opened her eyes, not sure if this was really happening. He pulled away, blushing. "Um, good-night!"

He turned and ran away. Sari stood there and watched him, her cheeks on fire.

She reached up and brushed her lips with her fingers. "Iruka-sensei . . ." She smiled. "I can't believe that actually happened—I've waited so long." She headed up the stairs toward her room.

"I just hope I won't wake up tomorrow and find that it was a dream."

* * *

Sari blushed and waved when she saw Iruka come into the tavern. She handed two women their drinks and then made her way over to him. When she had woken up, she thought that maybe the kiss really _had_ been a dream—she had to know.

"Um, Iruka-sensei." She clutched the serving tray tightly in her hands. "W-what happened last night? After we went bowling?"

"What do you mean? Nothing happened." Iruka had been up all night, worried that he hadn't done the right thing. If Sari didn't remember, he didn't want to make her.

"Oh." She looked a little disappointed. A large group of rowdy men came in. "I'd better go." She went to take the men's orders and disappeared behind the bar.

One of the men whistled when she was gone. "I'd like to get my hands on some of _that_!" Iruka glared at him (wishing looks could kill).

Sari returned with a tray full of drinks and began passing them out to the rowdy bunch. The man that had whistled earlier slapped her on the butt as she walked by (Iruka squeezed his glass so hard that it shattered) but Sari ignored him—a lot of male customers did that.

The man kept calling for Sari, flirting with her and buying more drinks. Iruka finally lost it when the man pulled Sari into his lap. He stood up, walked right over, and punched the guy in the face. His friends all stared for a moment before cracking up.

"We told you—a girl that pretty's got to have a boyfriend!" The man held his bleeding nose and angrily stomped from the tavern.

Iruka led Sari to the back room. "I can't stand to see them touch you like that!" He said angrily. He looked away from her. "Sari, I have to tell you—last night, I really did kiss you."

"What? Why did you say that nothing happened then?"

"It just didn't seem right—you're so much younger than me!" She just stared at him, openmouthed. When he looked up, he figured she was shocked that he liked her and looked at the floor again, embarrassed. "I-I understand if you hate me, but—"

He was cut off as Sari threw her arms around him and kissed him. She pulled back just long enough to whisper, "I could never hate you."

Maya closed the door to the back room, giving them some privacy.

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**:D Well, how was it? **

**I'm sooooo proud of it, so if you think it's terrible, tell me (and I'll imagine your death in many gruesome ways :P ) or you can tell me how wonderful it is (and I'll love you forever! ^o^ ).**

**Sorry if you were expecting something more at the ending, but I'm not too good at that kind of stuff. ^^"**

**I know it _was_ kind of a lame ending, but it was sweet :)  
**


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